Children from Higher-Income Families Suffer More When Parents Split - East Idaho News

Children from Higher-Income Families Suffer More When Parents Split

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Thinkstock 090914 ChildHuggingParent?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1410310853614John Howard/Digital Vision/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A new study found evidence that children from higher-income families suffer more when their parents split up than children from lower-income families.

Researchers looked at a sample of almost 4,000 children from around the country. The study, published in the journal Child Development, found that kids from wealthier families experienced more behavioral problems after a parental split. Researchers speculated that part of the causation for this is that children from lower-income families may feel less of a change, in terms of economic resources, when one parent leaves.

Children also generally exhibited improved behavior when they moved from a one-parent household to a stepparent family.

Researchers also reaffirmed findings from previous studies that changes in family structure have a greater impact on children in the first five years of their lives than in later years.


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